The U.S. intelligence officials poring over Osama bin Laden’s hard
drives and recording devices have come to the preliminary conclusion
that he managed “even tactical details” of the terror group’s business from Abbottabad. But bin Laden kept the compound off the communications grid to avoid the watchful eyes of American spy services like the National Security Agency. So how’d he deliver his instructions?

Not in a sophisticated way. He would compose a message to an
operative on his personal computer, place the document on a flash drive
and give it to a courier. Officials explain to the Associated Press that
the courier would drive to a “distant internet cafe,” stick the drive into a cafe computer’s USB, and send off bin Laden’s message in an e-mail.

Spot the security flaws here. Who knows what nasty worms lurk in
Pakistani internet cafes. If the flash drives get infected, so too could
bin Laden’s computers, assuming the drives don’t get discarded after
one use like burner phones.